Question #1
How do I go about making it connect from the IRC servers link block as a service and not a client.
Your client will be considered a server once you send the IRCd the SERVER command as documented by the specific ircd protocol..
Since this is going to be run as a service does that mean the service itself needs to be coded in C? (I think thats what anope is in right? as well as the unrealircd?) or could I do it in something like C#?
Any language that will let you connect to a socket will do.. it has even been done in mIRC scripting I think, though you d have to be completely nuts to want to do that... most ircd's are C/C++ for performance reasons, Java or C# will do just fine, though they ll use more resources and be a bit slower.
and is there any particular reason why you don't want to do it as a module to an existing server like anope..?
I don't think there is much you could do with a standalone service that you couldn't do with just a module in anope at only a 10th of the effort..
it would make it wayyy easier since all of the protocol details would be handled by anopes core.
If you base it on 1.9, you could probably strip anope to the bone and leave only the very core that connects to the ircd, then it should be able to connect alongside a regular install of anope..
tricky bit here would be the fact that 1.9 is still in development and constantly changing...
